our very best.

I was listening to a cd today. Some may think the singer a bit pitchy or inexperienced. I hear passion and I hear past the pitchy and the inexperience. It made me happy and revealed to me that even though we should give God our best - sometimes our best is not the best of another. Sometimes our best is pitchy and inexperienced! And it's ok to simply sing!

If the very best that we can do is compared to filthy rags - then oh how I long to sit next to the one who sings off key at church - singing from the very pit of his soul - singing out loudly to praise the Lord with passion. To share with the artist who has something to say about their God - the God of heaven and earth using cheap paints with unsteady brushstrokes. To read the poem written by the teen that doesn't rhyme nor make sense but makes sense to her and to her God.

But we are all like an unclean thing,

And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;

We all fade as a leaf,

And our iniquities, like the wind,

Have taken us away.

Isaiah 64:6 (NKJV)

Do I deny to sing or to paint or to write because I don't think I am good enough? Or do I think that I am better than they? To God, if our righteousness is as filthy rags, then we are all the same. We are picked out by our intention. Yes everything comes down to the intention of the heart doesn't it?